This year I had two sections of 9th grade World Cultures with 31 total students, 15 in my first period class and 16 in my second period class. Initially, I was interested in choosing just one section with whom to conduct my inquiry, but there are a number of reasons that I decided to work with both sections. Both sections were extremely diverse, energetic learners, and valuable as a representative of the 9th grade class at Gilman, of which they make up about 30%. Because I teach both classes on the same cycle days and back-to-back, I had an opportunity to use the same techniques with two different sections and track the differences in responses and reactions. These classes were equally easy to develop a student-teacher relationship and the bonds between classmates were equally strong, which helped to develop a strong rapport early on in the school year, making it easy to dive into a the brave spaces required for my inquiry project.
Below are the self reported identifiers of my classes, collected at the beginning of the year through a survey. This survey also asked questions about their learning styles, extracurricular activities, and favorite subjects so that I could get a better grasp of who my students were before we began our inquiry together.
Data Collection Tools
My data was collected through a variety of methods, including student journals, surveys, homework and assignments, interviews, and class discussions. The data I collected help me to get the climate of my classes, as well as to investigate the different ways I was using feminist lenses in my classroom.
"Ms. Lloyd, is your research why it takes so long to get our work back? I mean, not like, criticizing you, but like, it DOES take a while." --Student in 1st period
I spent hours combing through all of the documents, assignments, interview transcriptions, and survey results, which, as one of my students pointed out, did take a toll on my timely return of some of their work. While I was forthcoming with the fact that I was doing research with them, but I waited until we had developed a trusting relationship to explain that I was researching feminist lenses in the classroom. Because "feminism" can be a dirty word within some circles--particularly with boys--I decided to leave that out the word until our second quarter together, which was a good decision on my part because they were much more receptive to it after we had made more personal connections.
Data Codes
As I began to comb through and code the research, three distinct patterns emerged. I resolved to look at the codes for understanding, awareness, and frequency. Understanding is defined as a student's ability to explain how and why inequality exists from a cultural, economic, and historical perspective. Awareness is defined by a student's ability to recognize inequality when presented with it. The category of awareness was further broken down into three subcategories: unaware,aware, and self-aware. A student who is unaware cannot identify inequality or oppression, even when presented with it. A student who is aware demonstrates a recognition that inequality exists and can identify it when they are presented with it. A student who is self-aware demonstrates a recognition for where they fit in narratives of inequality and can begin to identify how they might be able to change the narratives. Frequency measures how often themes of inequality are brought up in class by my students and how often students choose to answer questions about inequality when options are given on quiz, test, or essay assessments.